MORE NEWS, 12-23: NV GETS SOLAR POWER TOWER & STORAGE; SMALL TOWN MICHIGAN WIND A WINNER; THE GLITTER OF THE SUN; CHEVRON BUILDS RHODE ISLAND WIND

NV GETS SOLAR POWER TOWER & STORAGE
Solar Thermal With Molten Salt Energy Storage: SolarReserve Heads to Nevada
Jeff St. John, December 22, 2009 (Greentech Media)

"…SolarReserve says it can [store solar energy using molten salts] and it's landed a project with NV Energy to prove it…[I]t has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Nevada utility to buy power from a 100-megawatt solar-thermal plant to be built near the town of Tonopah, Nev.

"SolarReserve, which last year raised $140 million in a Series B round let by Citi's Sustainable Development Investments and Good Energies, said it intends to start construction next year, though the Nevada Public Utilities Commission still needs to sign off on the deal."

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"Central to SolarReserve's plans is the molten salt energy storage system it has licensed from United Technologies. Like many solar-thermal systems, SolarReserve uses a field of mirrors, or heliostats, to focus the sun's heat on a tower to heat a liquid to power a turbine."

A solar power tower. (click to enlarge)

"…[The] liquid is a molten salt that is then pumped into a closed-loop system to generate steam to power a turbine. It's the same technology tested out by the Department of Energy in the landmark Barstow, Calif. solar thermal pilot project known as Solar Two back in the 1990s.

"SolarReserve also hopes to build a 150-megawatt solar thermal and molten salt storage project east of Palm Springs, Calif., and has a longer-range goal of building up to 5 gigawatts of plants in the coming years."


SMALL TOWN MICHIGAN WIND A WINNER
Fact Finder: Wind Power; A closer look at how the TCLP turbine has performed
Diana Fairbanks, December 22, 2009 (NBC25 Connect MidMichigan)

"…Recently Traverse City Light and Power agreed to buy energy from a wind farm in McBain. A viewer wrote us asking how the wind turbine TCLP already has, right outside of Traverse City, has performed over the years…

"…[It was] the first utility grade wind turbine in the United States and it was put into service in 1996…[The M-72 turbine] cost of $650,000…[and] has brought in $1,030,000 over its lifetime…[W]hen the wind is really blowing it can power up to 110 homes…It was expected to put out 600 kilowatts of electricity and…[has done so] on a regular basis…"

click thru for a brochure about the TCLP wind turbine

"…[P]lanning studies showed the location two miles outside of Traverse City to be a good spot because of both its elevation and its proximity to TCLP, but…[current standards would call for] a little higher in elevation [like that if nearby McBain, Michigan]…"

Wind power is coming. (click to enlarge)

"…TCLP signed a 20 year contract to use power from 5 turbines [twice as potent as the Traverse City turbine] at Heritage Stoney Corners Wind Farm [in McBain] at the end of next year…That's 10 megawatts of energy.

"It's part of the effort by TCLP and all electric utilities in Michigan to meet a new state mandate of 10% renewable energy by 2015…Right now, even with the M-72 turbine, more than 99% of TCLP's energy is from coal generation…[But TCLP’s] longer term goal…[is] to go from 99% dependant on coal down to 60-70% by 2020…"


THE GLITTER OF THE SUN
Sandia Labs Creates Fashionable Glitter-Sized Solar Cells
Clay Dillow, December 22, 2009 (Popular Science)

"Suburban rave-goers, women of Jersey Shore, and Elton John, take note: your lives just got a little bit greener. The sartorial risk-takers over at Sandia National Labs have created glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize solar energy collection the way Liberace revolutionized the dress code for concert pianists.

"Made of crystalline silicon and fabricated using microelectric and microelectromechanical systems processes commonly found on electronics manufacturers' production floors, the tiny cells hold great potential for better perfomance and efficiency as well as reduced cost…[Thinner] than a human hair…they are 10 times thinner than normal 6-by-6-inch brick cells and use 100 times less silicon, yet the difference in their performance is negligible…[and] because of their flexibility, they have myriad applications going far beyond fashion that larger, static PV cells just can't compete with."

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"For starters, the cells could be integrated into flexible substrates and used as textiles in everything from clothing to cargo gear to tents and shelters turning anyone spending a good deal of time outdoors -- hikers, soldiers, hunters -- into a walking recharge station for small electronic devices. They could also potentially be used to wrap irregular surfaces on everything from buildings to seafaring vessels to automobiles to create a solar harvesting panel just about anywhere."

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"What's more, they can be cut from silicon wafers of any size; if one cell proves faulty during the fabrication process, the rest of its tiny cousins can still be harvested, whereas in larger brick cells a fautly unit could mean the entire wafer is unusable. The tiny glitter cells could have intelligent controls and even storage built into them at the chip level, simplifying the process of transmitting the power, not to mention the permit and grid integration processes…

"…[B]road application may not be too very far away. While large-scale solar projects may not become glittering fields of micro-cells overnight, it's a pretty solid wager that there's a soldier out there somewhere with plenty of sun and no working batteries that could benefit from a little glam. Turns out Elton John really did have the electricity all along…"


CHEVRON BUILDS RHODE ISLAND WIND
RI picks Chevron for Narragansett wind project
Eric Tucker, December 22, 2009 (AP)

"Rhode Island has selected Chevron Energy Solutions to develop and maintain several onshore wind turbines in the coastal town of Narragansett…

"Chevron's proposal beat out bids from three other firms. It plans to finance the site work and turbine construction without funding from the town or state…Current plans call for the turbines to be built on four sites owned by either the town or the state. The first turbine could be finished by the end of next year…Each turbine could cost somewhere between $3 million to $3.5 million…The precise number of turbines hasn't been determined, nor has their height or capacity…"

What the Chevron turbines will look like. (click to enlarge)

"The state initially selected five sites for the turbines in Narragansett — a coastal town in southeastern Rhode Island — but withdrew one and now plans to proceed on four properties, including at a wastewater treatment facility near Scarborough State Beach.

"Chevron Energy Solutions, a clean energy company based in San Francisco, is a subsidiary of energy giant Chevron Corp…[Rhode Island Governor Don] Carcieri praised the company as a "proven leader in renewable energy" and said wind was the proven best source available for renewable energy…[Chevron said] it was pleased to have been selected and looked forward to helping the state and town meet their energy goals."

Naragansetters don't object to wind like the Back Bay snobs to the North. (click to enlarge)

"The turbines are separate from a larger [offshore] wind farm that Carcieri has proposed building miles off Block Island with the goal of generating about 15 percent of the state's electricity. His administration has selected Hoboken, N.J.-based Deepwater Wind LLC for that project.

"Last summer, the town and state sent 34-question surveys to around 800 randomly selected Narragansett residents to measure public reaction to the proposal. More than three-quarters of respondents reacted favorably to the proposed turbines…John Torgan, of the environmental group Save the Bay, said his organization embraced wind energy but that it was imperative that sites for turbines be selected in as transparent a method as possible…"